The paper investigates the effect of co-operative membership on people's capability to participate in household decision-making and on domestic gender relations. Our hypothesis is that the democratisation process activated in genuine co-operatives, authentic member-owned forms of business, may then be transferred to the household. We tested this in the "Coppalj" co-operative in Brazil, where we collected primary data. Both the techniques employed, regression and propensity score matching, support our hypotheses in a number of life domains. Though results vary slightly according to the domain and the outcome indicator, they show that members of the co-operative have a statistically significant higher capability to participate in decision-making and to share their decisions with partners than non-members (the control group). We then triangulated these quantitative outcomes with qualitative ones: the latter confirm an improvement in gender relations between co-operators and their partners, highlighting the fundamental role of Coppalj in fostering gender equality. © 2014 Oxford Department of International Development.

Burchi, F., Vicari, S. (2014). To Be or Not to Be a Member of a Primary Co-operative in Brazil: Any Difference in Household Decision-Making and Gender Equality?. OXFORD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, 42(3), 343-364 [10.1080/13600818.2014.905523].

To Be or Not to Be a Member of a Primary Co-operative in Brazil: Any Difference in Household Decision-Making and Gender Equality?

Burchi F.
;
Vicari S.
2014-01-01

Abstract

The paper investigates the effect of co-operative membership on people's capability to participate in household decision-making and on domestic gender relations. Our hypothesis is that the democratisation process activated in genuine co-operatives, authentic member-owned forms of business, may then be transferred to the household. We tested this in the "Coppalj" co-operative in Brazil, where we collected primary data. Both the techniques employed, regression and propensity score matching, support our hypotheses in a number of life domains. Though results vary slightly according to the domain and the outcome indicator, they show that members of the co-operative have a statistically significant higher capability to participate in decision-making and to share their decisions with partners than non-members (the control group). We then triangulated these quantitative outcomes with qualitative ones: the latter confirm an improvement in gender relations between co-operators and their partners, highlighting the fundamental role of Coppalj in fostering gender equality. © 2014 Oxford Department of International Development.
2014
Burchi, F., Vicari, S. (2014). To Be or Not to Be a Member of a Primary Co-operative in Brazil: Any Difference in Household Decision-Making and Gender Equality?. OXFORD DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, 42(3), 343-364 [10.1080/13600818.2014.905523].
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11590/353818
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 9
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact